11-month-old boy dies from injuries in N.C. tornado

By Web Exclusives

Published: Monday, April 28, 2014 at 07:37 AM.

Meteorologist John Sirman in the National Weather Service office in Memphis, Tenn., said those possible twisters appeared to have sprung out of two storm cells that swept through the northern part of Mississippi within two hours before those cells weakened.

Although one possible touchdown was reported near the Panola-Quitman county line in Mississippi, officials in both counties told The Associated Press on Sunday night that that seemed to have been just a close call.

"We don't have any damage in Panola County right now that would confirm it ... Several funnel clouds came over, and the tail would come down and go back up," Emergency Management Director Daniel Cole told AP.

Cole said there was one accident on a local road but no one was seriously hurt during the storms.

Forecasters warned stormy weather was in store for a wide swath of the South in coming days. Forecasters warned the strongest storms were capable of damaging winds and hail, lightning, hail and flash floods.

The severe weather threat prompted Barksdale Air Force Base near Bossier City, La., to cancel its air show on Sunday. The National Weather Service said northern Alabama could see rain and flash flooding, while central and northern Georgia could see storms and heavy rain early entering the work week.

Sunday was the third anniversary of a 122-tornado day, which struck parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia and killed 316 people.

An 11-month-old boy in North Carolina has died, two days after being injured in one of a series of tornadoes that hit in the state, authorities said. The fatality came on a weekend of potent thunderstorms that lashed wide areas of the South and unleashed deadly tornadoes in the Midwest.

Julia Jarema, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, said the boy died in a hospital Sunday but she didn't release further details or the boy's identity. More than a dozen people were reported injured and around 200 home and businesses destroyed or heavily damaged in Friday's scattered tornadoes in North Carolina.

On Sunday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory toured that and other storm-struck areas of the state and said his prayers go out to the boy's family. He pledged to seek state and federal government assistance for the victims.

Elsewhere, a new round of powerful storms hit around the Midwest and the South, spawning several tornadoes, including one that claimed lives in a small northeastern Oklahoma city and another that carved a path of destruction through several northern suburbs of Little Rock, Ark.

Forecasters, meanwhile, said they were checking radar reports suggesting possible tornadoes had developed Sunday evening in five locations in north Mississippi though none of those apparently touched ground.

Meteorologist John Sirman in the National Weather Service office in Memphis, Tenn., said those possible twisters appeared to have sprung out of two storm cells that swept through the northern part of Mississippi within two hours before those cells weakened.

Although one possible touchdown was reported near the Panola-Quitman county line in Mississippi, officials in both counties told The Associated Press on Sunday night that that seemed to have been just a close call.

"We don't have any damage in Panola County right now that would confirm it ... Several funnel clouds came over, and the tail would come down and go back up," Emergency Management Director Daniel Cole told AP.

Cole said there was one accident on a local road but no one was seriously hurt during the storms.

Forecasters warned stormy weather was in store for a wide swath of the South in coming days. Forecasters warned the strongest storms were capable of damaging winds and hail, lightning, hail and flash floods.

The severe weather threat prompted Barksdale Air Force Base near Bossier City, La., to cancel its air show on Sunday. The National Weather Service said northern Alabama could see rain and flash flooding, while central and northern Georgia could see storms and heavy rain early entering the work week.

Sunday was the third anniversary of a 122-tornado day, which struck parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia and killed 316 people.